Yorkshire

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If you’re new to Yorkshire see what it has to offer on our Introduction page.

We have now added more than 1,000 places to our A to Y Gazetteer of Yorkshire. We've listed the cities and towns and now many of the villages, with links to pages providing more information or to pinpoint villages on our unique Yorkshire map.

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And look below for our frequently updated page with some of our newest items about Yorkshire issues and events in more detail .......

Two days of racing at Beverley

Beverley RacecourseBeverley Races in the East Riding of Yorkshire has two days of racing tis Friday and Saturday (July 4-5).

Friday evening is the 70s Bus Stop Disco Racenight at Beverley featuring disco hits from 50 years ago in addition to the six races. The first race is at 5.42pm and the last race at 8.35pm.

The course holds its Summer Saturday races the following afternoon with the first of seven races at 2.13pm and the last race at 5.42pm.

More information at the

Beverley Racecourse website.
Find

Beverley racecourse on map.

Beverley

Yorkshire.guide/Beverley

More than 500 events at Bradford Literature Festival

City Hall, Bradford The Broadway, Bradford The University of Bradford St George's Hall, Bradford Salt's Mill, SaltaireBradford Literature Festival during its UK City of Culture year is packing more than 500 events into 10 days between Friday June 27 and Sunday July 6.

Literature, poetry, politics, history, science, photography, music, education and children's writing are extensively covered in talks, lectures, workshops, performances, story times and tours at venues across the city and in surrounding towns.

The Bradford festival has one of the most wide-ranging and topical programme of any festival of its kind with Bradford itself the hot topic of the year.

The central hub of the festival is again City Park in the centre of Bradford where performances and family-friendly activities are taking place, but events are also being held at many other venues, among them the University of Bradford, Alhambra Theatre, St George's Hall, Bradford Live, City Hall, National Science and Media Museum, Cartwright Hall, Imagination Station and also Salts Mill in Saltaire.

A photography exhibition takes place in the Broadway Shopping Centre, the Airedale Shopping Centre in Keighley and at the Underground Market in Shipley.

More information can be found on the Bradford Literature Festival website.

Find out more about other events taking place during Bradford 2025 - UK City of Culture .

Bradford

Yorkshire.guide/Bradford

Dragon boat races at Leeds Dock

Dragon boat racing at Leeds Dock at a previous festivalLeeds Waterfront Festival takes place this Saturday (July 5) with activities around Leeds Dock and Granary Wharf.

Dragon boat racing at Leeds Dock on Saturday is one of the main attractions with around two dozen teams competing in races along the dock.

At Granary Wharf, the Canal and River Trust will be hosting family fun events on Saturday including paddle boarding, canoeing or kayaking and children’s arts & crafts. Family-friendly rides and music from DJs will also continue at Leeds Dock on Sunday.

More about the festival at these

Canal & River Trust and

Leeds Dock web pages.

Leeds

Yorkshire.guide/Leeds

Last chance to see 60th Wildlife Photographer exhibition

Sewerby HallIt's the last chance to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 exhibition as it visits Sewerby Hall at Sewerby near Bridlington in the East Riding from the Natural History Museum in London.

The 60th exhibition has been on show since the start of May at the Grade I listed Georgian country house by the sea which also has a small zoo in its gardens. The last of the daily openings to see the wildlife photography is on Sunday July 13.

The exhibition showcases the best of some 60,000 pictures entered from around the world capturing some spectacular animal behaviour.

Further information at the Sewerby Hall and Gardens website.

Bridlington

Yorkshire.guide/Bridlington

Huddersfield station closed this weekend

Work is planned around Deighton station and at the A62 Leeds Road bridge (background)Bridge installation work on the A62 Leeds Road at Deighton near Huddersfield in West Yorkshire is among much work scheduled as part of the TransPennine Route Upgrade this weekend (July 5-6) which will see Huddersfield and several other stations closed to trains.

The higher bridge will allow the eventual electrification of the line between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York.

Track renewal will also take place at Deighton, work continues on the Huddersfield Viaduct and there will also be work in Huddersfield Tunnel and Gledholt Tunnel.

Click for MON-FRI SAT-SUN
Huddersfield station will only have replacement buses, including a service to Brighouse to link to TransPennine Express trains between Manchester, Leeds and beyond diverting on the long Calder Valley route with an additional stop at Brighouse. However, those trains will not be reaching Manchester Airport directly and there is a replacement bus on a Brighouse - Huddersfield - Stockport - Manchester Airport route. TransPennine Express trains to Hull will start at Leeds and trains to Scarborough will start at York.

Local stopping train services normally running between Bradford and Huddersfield and between Huddersfield and Leeds will be combined into one Bradford to Leeds via Brighouse service not reaching Deighton and Huddersfield. They will run from Halifax to Leeds via Brighouse on Sunday. The Northern Wigan - Manchester Victoria - Brighouse - Leeds stopping service should be operating its usual Saturday service and Grand Central services through Brighouse should also be able to operate normally.

Greenfield, Marsden and Slaithwaite will be stops on a replacement bus service between Stalybridge and Huddersfield. Passengers are advised to check stop locations as some are at a considerable distance away from the railway stations.

Other replacement buses from Huddersfield will cover stations normally reached by TransPennine Express services towards Wakefield Kirkgate, including Deighton and Mirfield and with an additional stop at Dewsbury. Trains to York via Castleford resume at Wakefield Kirkgate.

A replacement bus will make the journey from Huddersfield to Lockwood to catch trains on the Penistone line towards Sheffield.

More detail on the interactive Rail map at Yorkshire.guide

More about work on this line at the TransPennine Route Upgrade website.

Check details of your journey at the National Rail website.

Rail map

Yorkshire's railway heritage stretches beyond 200 years

The Middleton Railway is the world's oldest continuously working railwayWhile a "Railway 200" celebration is launched by Network Rail in 2025 as the "200th anniversary of the birth of the modern railway" it is worth remembering that the railway history of Yorkshire stretches back many decades before then.

The anniversary marks the 200th anniversary of The Stockton & Darlington Railway which was opened on September 27, 1825, on a route between the two towns in historic County Durham but was later extended into Yorkshire and the port of Middlesbrough.

Yorkshire however can trace its railway history back long before 1825.

The Middleton Railway, near Leeds, has the distinction of being the world's oldest continuously working railway, established 67 years earlier than the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1758.

It became the first railway to the authorised by an act of Parliament, the Middleton Railway Act 1757.

Blenkinsop's 1812 rack locomotive Salamanca From 1829 engraving. Public domain source at Wikimedia Commons It initially operated as a horse-drawn waggon-way to take coal from the Middleton collieries towards Leeds. But the steam age also arrived earlier in Yorkshire, when in 1812, some 13 years before the Stockton & Darlington Railway, the Middleton railway operated the first successful commercial steam locomotive.

The locomotive Salamanca was the first of four built for the colliery railway. With its twin-cylinder design it was more sophisticated than the experimental steam locomotives of Richard Trevithick a few years earlier. The locomotives were designed and built in Leeds by Matthew Murray to work with a rack railway track which had been designed and patented by John Blenkinsop, the colliery manager.

The Middleton Railway today runs as a heritage passenger line with a museum at its Moor Road station revealing its long history. The line reopened after winter maintenance on Saturday April 5.

The Penistone Line Partnership is running a viaduct photography competition Scarborough has the world's longest station seatThe Keighley and Worth Valley Railway steam galaA train at the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway's recent steam galaAs part of the Railway 200 celebrations the Middleton Railway will be hosting a series of three evening talks during May, June and July commemorating the contribution of Leeds to the development of the railways. The railway is also restoring the world's smallest standard gauge diesel locomotive, built 90 years ago by the Hunslet Engine Co, to mark the pioneering role Leeds played also in diesel locomotive development.

Many other Railway 200 events are taking place to celebrate railway heritage in Yorkshire including art and photography exhibitions, drama and rail tours and even a student attempt to seat as many people as possible on the world's longest station seat at Scarborough station.

More about Railway 200 at Network Rail.

More about the Middleton Railway.

More about the Penistone Line Partrnership Viaducts Photography Competition.

Heritage Railways

A dozen Seaside Awards for Yorkshire in 2025

The beach at Whitby has both a Blue Flag and a Seaside Award in 2025 Hornsea has a 2025 Blue Flag Withernsea has a 2025 Blue FlagOnce again a dozen Yorkshire beaches have Seaside Awards in 2025 and three Yorkshire beaches have international Blue Flag awards.

The awards each year are made by the environment charity Keep Britain Tidy — the international Blue Flags on behalf of the Foundation for Environmental Education.

Beaches with Seaside Awards in 2025 are Redcar (Lifeboat Station beach), Saltburn-by-the-Sea, Runswick Bay, Sandsend, Whitby, Robin Hood's Bay, Scarborough (North Bay), Cayton Bay, Filey, South Landing at Flamborough, Bridlington (North beach) and (Wilsthorpe beach). The awards are presented to England's best beaches.

Whitby together with Hornsea and Withernsea have the Blue Flag, the world’s most recognised award for beaches, marinas and bathing waters which are measured against the highest bathing water standards of the European Union. The award highlights beaches with like standards across the world.

Find out more on our Seaside page.

Seaside

Yorkshire.guide/seaside

Yorkshire mixture

Here are links to a few of the most popular pages at Yorkshire.guide:

Cities Largest towns and cities Population Gazetteer Abbeys Castles Film locations Forest of Bowland Heritage Coast Heritage railways Highest mountains Historic Houses Howardian Hills Museums Nidderdale North Pennines North York Moors Peak District Racecourses Seaside York Yorkshire Dales Yorkshire football Railway stations

On Ilkla Moor Baht ’at

If you’re from Yorkshire you will probably recognise our background picture as the Cow and Calf Rocks on Ilkley Moor, famous as the location of the Yorkshire dialect anthem "On Ilkla Moor Baht ’at". More on Ilkley.

Yorkshire news topics

ARCHIVED
Bus rebranding plan: Weaver Network follows route of West Yorkshire's industrial past

Election 2025 results: Success for Reform UK in local elections in a few parts of Yorkshire.

Pennine Way 60: Anniversary of long-distance walking route with more than 100 miles in Yorkshire.

Bradford City of Culture: Opening show for West Yorkshire city named City of Culture 2025.

News archive 2024: News from 2024.

News archive 2023: News from 2023.

News archive 2022: News from 2022.

News archive 2021: News from 2021.

News archive 2020: News from 2020.

News archive 2019: News from 2019.

News archive 2018: News from 2018.

News archive 2017: News from 2017.

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